Replacing rubber door seal in washing machine - is it a diy job?

Our Zanussi washing machine is over 10 years old and has recently started leaving whitish spots or granules on washing, more obvious on dark items. Investigation suggests that some of the folds in the large rubber door seal have started to perish and that tiny bits of light-grey rubber may be responsible. I guess that when it gets even more perished it may start to leak.

I could probably get a washing-machine-repair-man in to do it, but the cost is likely to be more than the machine is worth. Apart from the question of whether a replacement part is still available, is this likely to be a diy job?

I haven't had to take any washing machine apart for some years, but from the little I remember they are big, heavy, and a bit of a brute to dismantle?

Reply to
Clive Page
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Clive Page wrote in news:cc0vfdF7e66U1 @mid.individual.net:

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Reply to
DerbyBorn

In article , Clive Page scribeth thus

Have a look on the espares website or on Youtube they are almost all done from the front and are normally easy to do..

Reply to
tony sayer

In article , DerbyBorn writes

What on earth did we do before ya-tube :-?

An excellent how-to guide, no time wasted and he didn't say , 'Ummm' once, worth a mention by name I think, Ezee-Fix.

For a European manufacturer though (Hotpoint) I'd be surprised if they didn't use Pozi screws in the construction so I wish the bods wouldn't call them Philips . . . .

Prob worth mentioning that Hotpoint and Zanussi come from the same stable.

Reply to
fred

Shame about the unnecessary background music though.

Chris

Reply to
Chris J Dixon

totally

NT

Reply to
meow2222

IME very much so. Usually just slacken a retaining wire, pull out the old, fit the new and retighten.

You ought not need to do much dismantling for a door seal.

Reply to
John Rumm

Thanks - and how amazing could do it in 7 minutes (ok with a bit of cheating and judicious cuts). It does look quite feasible. Off now to search for the right spare part...

Reply to
Clive Page

I've done it, not that difficult.

Reply to
The Medway Handyman

/An excellent how-to guide, no time wasted and he didn't say , 'Ummm' once, /q

Errrr????? but he said 'errr' 12 times in the first 57 seconds that I could be bothered to count....

Jim K

Reply to
JimK

Bet it takes twice a long when you've got to crawl on hands and knees, rather than have it at bench height ...

Reply to
Andy Burns

Warning, long boring post ahead, don't read if you are the type to whinge about the length and detail of posts.

3 weeks ago i helped me parents move a few things from their rental house to the new house they'd bought (they rented in the area after selling their house to take their time finding a new house)

When i opened the washing machine door i noticed the drum seal was moldy... not something my mum would put up with, but it was well engrained into the rubber, and she told me she was thinking of getting a new machine as she couldn't shift the mold stains on the seal.

i told her you can get new drum seals you know... of course she didn't, but found a genuine one on amazon for about 20 quid,

But as i would be back at my house in the midlands when it arrived (and they have moved to scarborough to retire by the sea) i had a look at the machine to see what sort of job it was by removing and replacing the old seal.

This particular machine the front panel does not come off as shown on the youtube vids, it's spot welded in place, so that made it a tiny bit harder but it wasn't that hard a job,

I took the top off, and also the powder drawer and it's ducting to the water valves just to give me more access, plus it allowed me to take the ducting apart and give it a good clean, as it's usual for them to go a bit manky due to the low wash temps.... and even a 90 degree wash wont clean the cold water inlet ducting to the soap dispenser drawer,

Anyway, i did struggle with the tightness of it all due to my arthritic hands, but it was basically... stretch the big spring around the drum end of the seal and pull it off the lip (no clip to release as in the youtube vids), then work the seal out of the drum lip to release it, find the spring on the wire band around the door end of the seal (by the door hinge on this hotpoint machine) use a small screwdriver to get the wire to come out of the seal lip, then work it around and off, work the lip of the seal off, then pull it through the door opening,

could do it the other way round and not remove the top... release front of seal first, then push it back and reach in to release the drum end.

Anyhoo, putting the seal back on was the reverse of taking it off, except it took me a little while to get the correct part of the lip over the drum end, and then getting the spring back on was hell, needed 3 hands at least, the door end of the seal was pretty easy, then of course i see the seal had rotated about 10 degrees so the drain hole was no longer at the bottom, but i said balls to that and left it, but pointed my error out to my dad who would be fitting the new seal.

about a week after i was back home the new seal arrived, but as they had a plumber around doing the first fix of the new bathrooms they are having built, they asked if he could fit the seal for them,

He tipped the machine so it rested against a wall at a 45 degree angle, thus giving him a better working access, and he had the old seal off in 1 minute, needed dad to hold the spring at the bottom whilst he worked it into the lip of the drum end, and he had completed the job in about 5 minutes,

Reply to
Gazz

So you'll know how to do it next time, except there probably won't be a next time. Thanks for sharing it though

Reply to
stuart noble

Thanks, Gazz, that's useful. As you say all the videos tell you to take the front panel off, but it turns out that our machine (Zanussi, ~10 years old) doesn't have a removable front panel, the metal extends around the sides as well with no seam. So whether the job is doable depends on whether the old door seal can be taken off and the new one put on with access just via the door hole. It sounds from your post that you had the same problem. Hmm, may need to find a spare day or two when I can tackle this, it sounds a bit harder than the 7-minute videos suggest.

Reply to
Clive Page

En el artículo , Clive Page escribió:

I think it's one of those jobs that takes forever the first time but subsequently is quick and easy.

Reply to
Mike Tomlinson

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